Flossers both electric and non-electric are known in the industry and in the prior art. Numerous patents have issued throughout the years to cover various improvements and novel features in the flosser industry. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,809 requires a dental floss to be reciprocated along an axis substantially parallel to the axis of a handle (if the dental floss apparatus is positioned upright, the floss would be moving in an up and down motion), or that the motor mechanism moved a shaft in the handle only along the handle's longitudinal axis, which would impart the same movement in the dental floss attached to the shaft (again, the motion would be an up and down motion if the apparatus is standing in an upright position). U.S. Pat. RE 35,712 discloses a sonic dental device that includes a flossing head that stores extra dental floss such that a user may exchange used dental floss with new floss. U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,796 is directed to an automated dental flosser that includes a twine of floss held in the body of the device for which a user may dispense unused floss. However, prior art flossing apparatuses seem to lack the ability to provide a compact electric flosser suitable for travel or provide an electric flosser that permits the flossing head to rotate 360° such that the user has the ability to change the angle of the flossing head, especially during use.
The present invention overcomes these shortcomings by providing in a first embodiment a folding electric flosser and in a second embodiment an electric flosser that includes a rotatable flossing head.